Primeval sturgeon; wolf makes rounds; no fine for shopping cart theft

BILLINGS, Mont. — A proposal to remove a rock weir from Montana's Yellowstone River so an endangered, primeval fish species can reach its spawning grounds could cost far more than government plans to construct a new dam and fish bypass at the site for $59 million.

Environmentalists who back the no-dam proposal say it would be worth the added expense to ensure the recovery of a small population of endangered pallid sturgeon on the lower Yellowstone.

Federal officials on Thursday said they would review the proposal in coming months to determine if it's feasible.

The existing, low-profile dam near the Montana-North Dakota border for decades has prevented an aging population of about 125 wild sturgeon from swimming upriver to their historic spawning grounds

The species' shark-like shape and long snout has changed little over the past 200 million years, earning it recognition among scientists as a "living fossil." The population declined sharply last century after dams were built along the Missouri River system. Federal officials declared it an endangered species in 1990.

A federal judge recently blocked plans from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Interior Department to build a new dam and a concrete channel for sturgeon to get around the weir. Proposed northeast of Glendive, Montana, the project also would provide irrigation water for more than 50,000 acres of cropland in eastern Montana and western North Dakota.

Environmentalists had sued over the government's plans last year, claiming there was no proof sturgeon would use the bypass. However, removing the rock dam and installing pumps to provide irrigation water to farmers along the Yellowstone could cost several times the original project's price tag, said Steve Forrest with Defenders of Wildlife.

If the cost is too high, Forrest acknowledged that it could become impractical. But his group and the co-plaintiffs in the case, the National Resources Defense Council, say the cost could be greatly reduced with the adoption of water conservation measures for the irrigation system and the roughly 400 farms it serves.

"Getting the dam out of the river is the best solution for the fish," said Forrest. "We're trying to look for cost savings, both in terms of what it would take to run the (irrigation) system and what it would take to design the system."

A study considering different alternatives for the project is expected to be completed by November, said Army Corps' project manager Chris Fassero. The study will determine if the no-dam alternative is technically feasible and also should provide a better understanding of the potential costs.

"I can't really say one way or another that we think it would work or not," Fassero said.

SALT LAKE CITY — A Republican Utah senator sponsoring a hate crimes bill that would protect gay and transgender people is criticizing the Mormon church for putting the brakes on the measure by urging legislators not to upset a balance between religious and LGBT rights.

Sen. Steve Urquhart, a Mormon, said at a news conference Thursday that he wanted to apologize to religious communities, ethnic groups and others because his church "effectively snuffed out" dialogue on his proposal.

Urquhart's news conference followed a Wednesday afternoon statement from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The faith said a balance of rights should be preserved and not upset by efforts from any end of the political spectrum. A church spokesman declined to elaborate.

Urquhart's bill is awaiting a vote from Utah's Senate. Supporters say they'll still work to move it forward.

CALDWELL, Idaho — An Idaho shelter director who told the owners of a euthanized dog that the animal had been adopted has been fired.

The Board of Directors of the West Valley Humane Society in Caldwell fired Jonathan Perry after seeing a TV news segment about the mistake, KIVI-TV reported (http://bit.ly/1LveD3S ).

Board President Brenda Cameron said an investigation into the incident found Perry lied to the family, which she said made her angry.

"It's very disappointing. It's very tragic. We have policies and procedures in place that our director and staff were to follow when it comes to a lost animal," she said. "We do everything we can to reunite that animal with the family."

The shelter put down Bunny the Boston terrier after the dog suffered what appeared to be seizures or strokes while at the shelter. Bunny went missing Jan. 31. Sheila Combs and her family contacted the shelter, filled out a missing dog report and then later were told Bunny had been adopted.

The shelter had Bunny for a week before the medical conditions caused staff to put the dog down.

Perry was placed on administrative leave on Tuesday and later fired. When asked for a statement, he says he supports the shelter.

"The staff and volunteers do a great job and I will continue to keep supporting them," he said.

In a statement, the West Valley Humane Society said they are sad and sorry about Bunny's death.

"We understand that no words can ease the grief the Combs family is experiencing, however, we want to extend our sincerest condolences over this tragic situation."

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Federal wildlife officials on Thursday defended their strategy for reintroducing Mexican gray wolves to the American Southwest despite recording the first decline in the population in four years.

The annual survey released Thursday by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service shows at least 97 wolves are spread among forested lands in southwestern New Mexico and southeast Arizona.

The population had been on the upswing since 2010, with 2014 marking a banner year when the predators topped 110 after seeing an increase of nearly a third in their numbers.

Federal officials conceded that the latest ground and aerial surveys show more work needs to be done to stabilize the long-struggling population.

"While disconcerting, the drop in numbers represents just one year and our strategy for the experimental population continues to be viable," said Benjamin Tuggle, the agency's Southwest regional director. "The Service and our partners remain focused and committed to making this population genetically healthy and robust."

Biologists aren't certain whether the decline in 2015 was an anomaly. They're considering a number of factors, including the deaths of 13 wolves, the unknown fate of another 11 and a significantly lower pup survival rate.

According to the survey, fewer than two dozen wild-born pups survived in 2015 compared to 38 the previous year. The survival rate dipped from a high of 86 percent in 2014 to 55 percent last year.

There's also room for improvement when it comes to the reproduction rates among the 21 wolf packs in the wild. Less than half of the packs successfully reared litters through the end of the year.

Sherry Barrett, the wolf recovery coordinator, said the team will be analyzing all factors in an effort to reverse the decline.

A subspecies of the gray wolf, the Mexican wolf was added to the federal endangered species list in 1976. It wasn't until 1998 that the first captive-bred wolves were released into the wild.

The reintroduction effort has been hampered by politics, illegal killings and other factors. Disputes over management of the program have spurred numerous legal actions by environmentalists who want more wolves to be released and by ranchers concerned about their livelihoods and safety in rural communities.

Most recently, ranchers and other officials in Colorado and Utah have been resistant to the possibility of expanding the wolf program to their states.

The Fish and Wildlife Service is planning to complete a long-overdue recovery plan for the species, but officials have said they've made no decisions about releasing wolves beyond the borders of New Mexico and Arizona.

Still, the governors of Colorado and Utah have joined officials from the other states in accusing the agency of using flawed science and biased experts. Federal officials have defended their experts and the process.

Environmentalists, meanwhile, have been pushing for the release of more captive wolves into the wild.

Michael Robinson with the Center for Biological Diversity promised to continue that pressure, arguing that's one way the population will be bolstered and distribution in the region improved. He said the agency is relying too heavily on cross-fostering pups with established wolf packs.

Jim deVos, the assistant director of wildlife management for the Arizona Game and Fish Department, acknowledged Thursday that recovery of any endangered species is never easy. He said the wolves are on a long-term upward trend given that they were completely absent from the landscape two decades ago.

"The lower number of Mexican wolves that were counted is a concern, but not a signal that the program is unsuccessful," he said.

BOULDER, Colo. — A surgeon says a woman whose unborn baby was cut from her womb by an attacker probably lost more than half her blood.

The Longmont Times-Call reports Dr. Kevin Berg testified Thursday in the trial of Dynel Lane. Lane is charged with attempted first-degree murder, assault and unlawful termination of a pregnancy in the 2015 attack on Michelle Wilkins.

Berg says Wilkins required hours of surgery and was hospitalized for five days. Her child didn't survive.

Prosecutors say Lane was obsessed with pregnancy and pretended she was expecting. They say she drew Wilkins to her Longmont house by advertising maternity clothes, cut the baby from her abdomen and then claimed the child was her own.

Defense attorneys say Lane attacked Wilkins on impulse and didn't intend to kill her.

SALT LAKE CITY — Jeep officials are removing a shot in one of their advertisements that showed people swinging from ropes at one of Utah's iconic arches.

The Deseret News reports that the ad, which premiered during the Super Bowl, features a montage of Jeep vehicles mixed with video clips of people engaging in outdoor activities, including swinging from Corona Arch, which is banned.

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management instituted a two-year ban on rope activities at Corona Arch in May and officials are considering making the ban permanent.

Viewers complained to Jeep that the company was promoting illegal activities.

A spokeswoman for Jeep's parent company, FCA US LLC, says the footage was from 2012 when rope-swinging was legal, but that Jeep is removing the footage from future postings of the commercial.

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Information from: Deseret News, http://www.deseretnews.com

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A former Albuquerque police officer accused of kneeing a law student in the groin and deleting a cellphone video will stand trial in Albuquerque.

KOB-TV reports (http://goo.gl/FfQxAu) that state District Judge Briana Zamora recently ruled that Pablo Padilla must stand trial in Albuquerque for aggravated battery causing great bodily harm and tampering with evidence charges.

His lawyers had sought to move the trial.

An attorney for University of New Mexico law school student Jeremy Martin says his client was forced to undergo emergency surgery to remove a testicle after Padilla kneed him during an April 2014 traffic stop.

Albuquerque Police Chief Gorden Eden later gave Padilla a 240-hour suspension.

Padilla resigned in December.

DENVER — Colorado health officials say cigarette purchases in 2015 increased for the first time in nearly a decade, while the number of adult tobacco users remains on the decline.

The Denver Post reports that the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment reported in a press release Wednesday that more than 194 million packs of cigarettes, or about 36 packs for every resident, were purchased in 2015. That was an increase of more than 1 million packs from 2014's recorded total.

Officials reported that the number of adult tobacco users fell to a rate of less than 16 percent of the state's population in 2014. In 2004, the rate was about 19 percent.

State officials have attributed the drop to a cigarette tax increase approved by voters in 2004.

KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. — Wildlife officials have confirmed that a fifth radio-collared gray wolf has made its way to Klamath County.

The 2-year-old male wolf, designated OR-33, dispersed from the northeastern Oregon Imnaha Pack in January.

Tom Collom, a district biologist for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, said OR-33 has been traversing land west of Swan Lake Valley, between Klamath Falls and Dairy, for about 10 days.

Collom said the public has reported sightings of the wolf to ODFW. The agency conducted an aerial survey from a helicopter and confirmed the wolf is traveling by itself.

"We've been in contact with landowners of properties he's been in the vicinity of in North Poe Valley and the Swan Lake area," Collom said. "We are trying to be transparent, letting livestock producers know when he's in the area. We've had no reports of depredation issues."

Collom said OR-33 got into a couple cow carcasses on private property and the landowners have since buried the remains.

Wildlife officials trapped and fit OR-33 with a GPS radio collar last February, when he was still a member of the Imnaha Pack — the same pack from which the wolves OR-7 and OR-25 dispersed.

Collom said after leaving the pack, OR-33 traveled west into the Columbia River Gorge before moving south into the Ochoco Mountains, east of Prineville, and moving through the desert toward Fort Rock Valley.

OR-33 continued traveling south, on the east side of Crescent and Chemult, before landing in southern Klamath County.

Collom said OR-33 took a similar path to OR-7 and OR-25. OR-33's collar is programmed to send location signals twice per day, but officials have only been receiving data once every two days or so.

OR-25 is a male that made his first appearance in Klamath County in May 2015. He left the Imnaha pack in March 2015. He is known to travel between Klamath County and Northern California, and has been on the west side of Upper Klamath Lake near Keno and Rocky Point.

OR-25 is believed to have attacked three calves on a ranch near the upper Williamson River in late October or early November.

Collom said a recent collar transmission placed OR-25 east of the Williamson River, in Lake County. He said the wolf is likely searching for food and a mate.

OR-7 was the first GPS radio-collared Imnaha wolf to make its way to Klamath County. OR-7 found a mate and became a breeding pair in May 2014. OR-7, his mate and their offspring have been named the Rogue Pack. OR-7 is known to travel across the Klamath-Jackson County line, near Fort Klamath.

Another collared Imnaha wolf, OR-3, was spotted in northern Klamath County in October. Collom said the wolf's collar does not transmit GPS signals and officials don't know where the wolf is now.

A radio-collared female, OR-28, was detected in Klamath County in November. OR-28 dispersed from the Mount Emily Pack in Umatilla County. She traveled in northern Klamath and Lake counties before settling in near Silver Lake in northern Lake County.

"We've confirmed that she is with what appears to be a male," Collom said, noting that officials do not believe the male is fitted with a radio collar.

SAN FRANCISCO — Twin sisters in California will share a $6 million lottery jackpot after one of them lucked out with a winning ticket.

California Lottery officials say Lisa Toton and Laura Poorman appeared at a San Francisco-area office last week to jointly claim their prize.

The fraternal sisters with the identical voices have been buying lottery tickets since they were 18. They declined to give their age or hometown to lottery officials, but did share what they'd like to do with the money.

Toton, who bought the winning ticket, says she may buy a vacation home and a black GMC Vandura cargo van.

Her sister wants to pay off student loans and buy a house.

They have 60 days to choose a lump cash amount or monthly payments.

COTTONWOOD — Police in Cottonwood have arrested a man they say tried to break into a church.

Officers say they spotted 25-year-old Vincent Edward Heslin II in a SUV parked at the church around 2:30 a.m. Thursday.

They questioned Heslin and then noticed a screwdriver on the floorboard.

He was found to have an outstanding warrant.

A subsequent search found Heslin had screws that matched a vent grate in the church.

Officers then discovered a black ski mask, bolt cutters and other tools in the SUV.

Heslin told police he was not trying to break in but be "annoying" by removing the screws.

Heslin, of Cottonwood, is being held in Camp Verde jail on one count each of burglary, possession of burglary tools and defacing property used for religious purposes.

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — Authorities say a 22-year-old college student struck and killed by a train may have been wearing earbuds and looking down at his phone when he walked onto the tracks on California's Central Coast.

Police say Thomas Tilton Stone was found unresponsive after being hit Tuesday in San Luis Obispo, where he attended California Polytechnic State University. He was pronounced dead at a hospital.

Witnesses tell investigators that Stone was checking his phone and did not respond to crossing arms or the train's horn prior to the collision. Police and coroner's officials continue to investigate.

Stone, a Vallejo resident, was a business major at Cal Poly.

LOS ANGELES — A Palos Verdes man has been charged with knocking a man unconscious at Dodger Stadium after a game last October.

Prosecutors charged Michael Rae Papayans on Thursday with assault by means likely to produce great bodily injury. He's free on bail and faces up to seven years in prison if convicted.

It's unclear whether he has an attorney.

Prosecutors say Papayans and his mother began yelling at a group of people — one of whom was wearing Mets clothing — on Oct. 9 in the parking lot.

Authorities say Papayans punched a 50-year-old man, who hit the pavement and was knocked unconscious.

It was reminiscent of a 2011 parking lot attack on San Francisco Giants fan Bryan Stow, who suffered brain damage. Two men pleaded guilty to the attack.

KELSO, Wash. — Officials in a Washington city have changed their minds about how to handle people taking shopping carts away from stores.

The Daily News reports (http://bit.ly/1QmZzwN ) that the Kelso City Council has voted down a measure that would make stealing a shopping cart a civil infraction.

The ordinance that failed in a 3-3 voted would have made taking a cart more than 100 feet from a store punishable by a $50 fine. It would have also allowed the city to charge most retailers a $25 fine to retrieve their cart unless it is claimed within 48 hours.

City Manager Steve Taylor says those who voted against the ordinance want to see a better plan for returning the carts.